Friday, September 30, 2011

iPad Blog-Week 1

In the beginning I chose a Math application that allowed students to improve their multiplication skills however the application gave them answers as they were trying to solve the problems. After much thought, I chose to work with the K12 Timed Reading Practice Lite application with my students. I selected this program for the reason that all of my students reading levels are below grade level. I decided to utilize the application as a Reading Running Record. A running record is a way to assess a student's reading progress by systematically evaluating a student's oral reading and identifying error patterns. I am hoping that this tool will help increase my students’ fluency in reading.

As soon as I explained that we would be using the iPad, my students became ecstatic. The smiles on their faces lit up the classroom. Every day I allow students to read a story on the iPad that is on their reading level. As they are reading I am listening and monitoring how they are reading. I am recording the amount of miscues that occur. If students are able to read over 100 wmp with a small amount of errors they may move to another level. If students read less than 100 wpm or have more than 7 errors then they will read a different story on the same level. I really enjoy using this application because it records how many words are read per minute and contains several books for each level. Each day my students wait patiently for their turn to read. As they read I watch them press the button to continue and once it’s over they ask if there is time to read another story. To them reading has now become fun.